A Weasley Sweater
by Vikki Valentine
Summary: The middle of winter can be a dangerous place, especially when ones in love. But when Ron shows a friendly gesture towards Hermione, how does she and everyone else react? [Paused to catch up with a few other fics, sorry!]
1. Friendly Gesture

A/N: I do not own any of the characters, nor the aspect of Harry Potter. (If only... >>)

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"Are you sure Ron?" Hermione asked, looking down at his maroon sweater with a big 'R' printed on it.

"Yes, Hermione! Your freezing, take it." said Ron, smiling at her.

"All right, if you say so..." she said, nodding. She tugged on the sweater a second time and smiled up at him. "Thank you,"

"Your welcome," he said, continuing to smile at her.

Hermione smiled back and walked out the Entrance Hall door, leaving Ron behind. She felt much warmer now. The cool brisk winter wind swept past her. She looked behind her to see Ron actually followed her. She turned back around and continued to walk on the grounds.

"Hermione," said Ron's voice.

Hermione stopped walking and turned around. "Hey, Ron... What is it?"

"You left your book," he said, handing it to her. "Figured you might want it."

"Oh! Thank you." she smiled as she took the book from him. She never expected that coming from Ron... That was the type of thing that Harry would usually do. Ron would normally laugh and say it was tough luck or something.

"Your welcome," he replied.

"So…" Hermione said, looking around.

"Uh… Yeah…" said Ron, shrugging. "Can I possibly join you in your walk?"

"Aren't you cold?" she questioned.

"Well, maybe a little but I'm fine," said Ron, folding his arms.

"Oh… You can have your sweater back if you want…"

"Oh no. I gave it to you. Keep it, really." Insisted Ron.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I hate maroon." He said. "I get one every year."

"Oh yeah… Well, thanks." She said, smiling weakly.

"Your welcome, again." Said Ron.

"Well, let's walk…" said Hermione, breaking the awkward moment.

"Yeah. So… What's the _Nocturnal Beast _book for?"

"Boredom. I already finished my three reports from Transfiguration, Charms and Potions so I thought a little informational book about nocturnal beast and stuff just to review for exams later on."

"Oh… Do you think you could help me with mine?"

"Which one?"

"All of them…?" he asked nervously.

Hermione laughed. "Sure… I'm only going to help though, not practically do it for you."

"I know, I know…" said Ron, looking down.

"Good. Because you know, if you applied yourself you could do it all on your own."

"Oh really? I could?"

"Why yes, of course, Ron!"

"Yeah okay… And I have a million galleons." Said Ron with sarcasm.

"All right, whatever you say, I still believe you can do it though."

"With your help I can do about anything." Said Ron, beaming.

"It's nice to know I'm appreciated around here," said Hermione, with a roll of her eyes.

"You are, Hermione." Said Ron, looking down.

Hermione looked over at him. "You okay?" she asked, with concern.

"Fine." He answered, quickly.

"You sure?"

"Yeah…" he said, quietly.

"Oh, well… Okay."

"Erm… can I tell you something?"

"Of course! Anything that troubles you, Ron."

"Oh… Well… Never mind."

"Okay then…" she said, narrowing her eyebrows.

"Sorry, I don't think I'm ready to talk about it."

"Oh, well then… Whenever you are, you can come to me."

"Thanks…" he said, quietly.

"Your welcome…" she said, smiling at him.

When Ron turned to her he smiled too. "So, seen Harry lately?"

"He's been busy lately…" said Hermione.

"Yeah, I noticed. Barely talks to me at all."

"Oh well, that's the way he is these days. Doesn't care about much, ever since Sirius died…"

"Well, if you weren't so blunt about it then maybe he would talk to you more often."

"Well, Harry needs to learn how to face the truth, don't you think?" she asked, looking over at Ron.

Ron sighed. "We're supposed to be his friends,"

"We are. It's just I'd like him to realize that. We're not against him! We're with him! We only don't understand because he doesn't want us to..."

"I'm going back inside, enjoy the sweater..." he said, shrugging lightly.

"All right then," said Hermione, looking over at him as Ron departed her company.

"Hmm... This sweater is pretty warm..." she said, to herself. "But I have to give it back. I can't just keep it. If I wear it for more than one day, people will start to think... They might even start talking! Oh, I cannot be seen in this sweater. No matter how much, I love being in it..."

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Hmm... To keep writing or not? I guess reviews will tell me. I don't even feel like completing this thought to grab your attention. Just a quick yes or no will do. o.o yay. >> Thanks.

Vikki


	2. Rumor Has It

Hermione quickly walked back inside the casle. She looked around to see if she saw any sight of Ron. No sign.

"Darn," she mumbled to herself. She looked into the Great Hall, didn't see him. She ran up the Entrance Hall steps. No sign. She sighed and continued to walk up the Grand Staircase to find, yet another, no sign of him at all. She scowled and turned the other way when she ran into Malfoy.

"Watch where your going, Mudblood!" he snarled over at her.

"Oh, shove it, Malfoy." she snapped. "I don't have time for your antics..." she mumbled.

Malfoy was about to shoot back a response but he stared at the sweater. "That's Weasley's sweater, isn't it?" he asked.

Hermione looked down and frowned. She had forgotten to take it off. "Your point?" she asked, calmly, looking back up at him.

"You two aren't... Dating are you?" he asked.

"No.." she replied, turning red in the cheeks.

"Hmm... Where is the weasel, anyway?"

"No idea... I'm looking for him," said Hermione.

"Mmm hmm..." said Malfoy, cracking a smile.

"What?" snapped Hermione.

"Oh nothing, good day, Granger." he said, as he departed her company.

_Oh no..._ Thought Hermione. _If Malfoy opens his big mouth, I'm done for...._

Hermione scowled and continued up the steps. It was no use. She didn't see any sign of Ron anywhere. She decided to walk over to the common room, maybe he was in there.

Hermione entered the common room, her eyes falling. She was rather tired for some reason. She yawned lightly and plopped herself down on the couch.

"Hermione!" said Harry's voice.

"Hmm?" she asked, blinking her eyes open.

"Have you seen... Why are you wearing Ron's sweater?" he asked, curiously.

"Ugh!" she growled. She stood up and stomped up to her dormitory not wanting to be bothered with anyone else.

Harry blinked as he heard the door slam shut from upstairs. "Sorry I asked..." he said, shrugging to himself.

Ron hurried in the common room, and looked around it, frantically. "Seen Hermione?" he asked, looking over at Harry.

"She has your sweater," said Harry.

"That doesn't tell me where she is, though. I looked back outside, and she was gone. I knew I shouldn't have gone into the Great Hall for a snack."

"You know she has your sweater, right?"

"Yes! I gave it to her."

Harry stared blankly at his friend. "Why?" he asked.

"She was cold, Harry... It's rather cold, you said so yourself."

"But... Why'd you give her your sweater?"

"Why not?"

"Because you don't do that..." said Harry.

Ron rolled his eyes. "One nice gesture and everyone thinks I'm in love," he remarked, walking over to the boys dorm.

"Are you?" asked Harry.

"No. Hermione's just a friend," said Ron, matter of factly. "You know that."

"Do I?" questioned Harry, with a smirk.

"Urgh..." groaned Ron, as he walked towards the boy dorm's.

"I feel so left out of the circle," said Harry, shaking his head.

Harry was about to go to the dorms, to join Ron and tease him a little more, but he heard something that grabbed his interest.

Lavender Brown and Pavarti Patil had just walked inside thecommon room.

"I heard it straight from Pansy Parkingson, not that she's a reliable source, but she knows couples, and they are the new couple," said Pavarti, nodding her head.

"I knew they've always liked each other! Granger just always had to hide it. You could see it whenever she had defenses for every little thing!"

"Exactly. Seamus says Ron's that way too whenever him and Dean tease him about it. He gets all defensive and his ears turn pink!"

"Oh that's adorable!" shrieked Lavender.

"Isn't it? Just thinking about it, makes me want Ron for myself!" said Pavarti, giggling.

Harry stared at the girls, with an eyebrow raised. He cleared his throat, and started to walk off when--

"Oh Harry!" called Lavender. "Tell me, has Ron and Hermione been acting weird lately?"

"You can say that," said Harry, shaking his head.

"Oh! Was that whole sweater bidtrue?" asked Pavarti.

"You mean, Ron giving one of his sweaters to Hermione? Yeah..." answered Harry.

"Ooh!" the girls squeeled.

"This is too cute," said Pavarti. "We must talk to Ginny, later."

"Yes!Ask her about Ron.... But for now, let's check the dorms for Hermione!" Lavender suggested.

"Okay! Harry, d'you think you can talk to Ron, for us?"

"Not for you, really. But I'm going to for myself," said Harry, continuing up the steps.

"Party pooper..." scowled Pavarti.

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"Come on, Hermione! You can tell us!"

"No! I don't!He's a friend, that's all there is to it!" shouted Hermione.

"What's this?" asked Lavender, grabbing the sweater off her bed.

"Give that back!" snapped Hermione, running over to her.

"Nope! This is evidence!" said Pavarti.

Hermione frowned and snatched it from her grasp. "Little twit. Now, snoop through my stuff, I'll have your head."

"No fun!" whined Lavender.

"Well, it's not fair... Your all accusing me of having feelings or someone who's a mere friend."

"That's what you want us to think," said Pavarti, nodding her head.

"Get a life! Just because yours isn't interesting, I see no reason for you to get involved with mine," stated Hermione.

Lavender and Pavarti shrugged.

"But it's what we do," remarked Lavender.

Hermione rolled her eyes and left the Girl's dorm. "I have no time for those two prats." She frowned at the sweater in her left hand. "You are causing me so much trouble, it's not even funny," she said, to herself.

She walked through the common room and decided she would take a much needed trip to the library. Hopefully there was a book on how to get guys off your case.

Just as Hermione departed the common room, Harry and Ron entered it from the boy's dorms.

"For once, Harry, mind your own business!" shouted Ron.

"For once, Harry?" repeated Harry, astounded. "Excuse you, but I think you and Hermione would be the ones who are always in _my_ business."

"Still..." said Ron, sighing. "Why would I lie to you?"

"Because you don't want it out?"

"Really... I don't," said Ron, scowling.

"All right, I won't say another word of it. But I'm not saying that no one else, will."

"What'd you mean?" asked Ron, in a panicked tone.

"Lavender and Pavarti were talking about you and Hermione, not so long ago," said Harry.

"Oh gawd, that means the whole school must know about that damn sweater." said Ron."See? There is a reason to not like maroon!" he shouted.

"Calm down. It's probably going to be a subject for a week, by the time Christmas comes, I'm sure it'll be done."

"Harry, Christmas is in five days..."

"Well, then, you better hurry and prove to them all that you don't like her; She's just a friend."

"My history with me and her is against me, though."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Everyone knows that little quarell we had when she went to the Yule Ball with Krum and I got annoyed and she blew up and made the whole deal that she shouldn't have been a last resort to the ball... Blah, blah, blah..."

"Oh yeah. They do know about that...."

"If it weren't for Neville, who had overheard us recalling that event," said Ron, scowling.

"No worries, I doubt this will be a big deal, nothing to worry about," said Harry.

"Whatever," said Ron. "I'll be back in an hour, I'm going patrolling for a while, it'll give me something to do."

"Right then, see you." said Harry, sitting down in a chair.

"See ya," said Ron, walking out of the common room.

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Ron was patrolling for about a half an hour so far. He sighed as he strolled the fourth floor. He had seen someone walking over his way and sighed with relief when he realized it was Ginny.

"Ginny, what're you doing here?" he asked.

"Oh, hello, Ron! Nothing, walking... Your patrolling, I assume?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Sounds exciting. Where's Hermione?"

"Don't want to know," he answered, frowning.

"Got into another fight?" she asked, giggling.

"No, everyone just think's we fancy each other... It's annoying."

Ginny laughed. "Ron! You just realized that people think that?"

"No, it's just now they're making a big deal out of it."

"Oh, sorry. Well,I best be off. See you, then."

"Bye," he said, continuing to walk down the hall.

Ron felt like hitting something. He didn't want Hermione thinking that he had feelings for her. Hell, he didn't even want to think about Hermione having feelings for him. Although, when he had heard that from Seamus, he did feel a little better about himself. But he wasn't sure how he felt about Hermione, anymore. It was complicated. But now, whenever he did something nice, people thought it was because he liked her. This would be hard. If he started to give her a silent treatment then they would be positive that he liked her. Which wasn't true! For the moment at least.

"Hey! Weasley! Spider on your back!"

"WHAT?" he yelled, he dropped himself on the floor and rolled around. "Where's the little bastard?"

Malfoy doubled over from laughing. "Oh my gawd! That was priceless!That will never get old!"

Ron glared and stood up. "Funny, Malfoy. Real funny. If had known it was you, I wouldn't have done this."

"Sure you wouldn't have." said Malfoy, standing up. "Anyway, now that I have gotten your attention... I heard you and Granger are... An item,"

"Who told you that?"

"Granger," said Malfoy.

"What?" Ron asked, raising an eyebrow. "When?"

"In the library about ten minutes ago."

"Well, it isn't true."

"But she wants it to be..." said Malfoy, smirking. He then continued down the corridor and leaving Ron by himself.

"Me and that girl need to have a _serious_ talk..."

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Ooh... Beautiful ending. xD

Thank you for all who reviewed! It means a lot to me, thanks!

Well, ish gonna go now, thanks for reading and Merry Christmas and whatnot. xDD ;

Luv yas,

Vikki

Oh yes... Review!


	3. Dispute

Hermione stared at Ron. "What on earth are you trying to say?" she snapped, at him.

"It's just… Malfoy… He—"

"Oh, and you believe every single word he says!"

Ron stared in disbelief as almost every student in the Great Hall grew silent and observed the two's argument.

"Well, no, its just—I didn't think you'd make such a big deal out of—"

"No, forget it, Ron. In fact, don't talk to me! How DARE you assume such nonsense!" Hermione felt herself turn crimson, knowing it was probably true, deep inside.

"Hermione! I was asking you!" he shouted.

"Don't you shout at me!" she said, her eyes filling with tears. "You just—Stay away, Ronald!" she yelled, pulling away from his grasp.

Ron stared at her, unsure of anything at the precise moment. He sighed and nodded. "Fine. I'll do what you ask…"

"You better have!" she snarled.

She looked around to see everyone staring at them. She wiped the tears from her eyes and stomped away from Ron, the hall still in silence….

"I don't get it, Harry," said Ron, sighing. "I mean, what on earth did I do? I asked something I heard…"

"Well, for one thing: You mentioned Malfoy…"

"But, he was the one who told me—"

"You know better than to believe him! What's the matter with you?"

"I dunno…" answered Ron, "It's like—Everything that concerns Hermione, I just have to believe…"

"I see," said Harry, trying not to smile.

"I guess she's more than a friend to me," he admitted.

"Well, at least you came out and said it, finally."

"Heh, funny…"

"Sorry, but it's true… Now, if only Hermione would—"

"Would what?"

"Do the same."

"What'd you mean? She fancies—"

"Seems like it to me, and everyone else… Ginny says she rambles on about you, the same way Ginny rambled about me when she had her… Crush," said Harry, turning a little red.

"Hmm… Well, I don't know how to tell her."

Harry grinned a little. "Don't worry about it, mate. Do what you can. But… I think for now you should stay away, like she requested."

"More like screamed," said Ron, rolling his eyes.

Harry laughed and they walked out of the common room, and headed towards potion's class.

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"I'm sorry Professor," mumbled Ron.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor for your blatant display of ignorance…" snapped Professor Snape, heading back towards his desk.

Ron had completely messed up a potion. They were supposed to make a boil cure potion, but Ron forgot to add three drops of anti-dyoxide, which was a special element gathered from a clean forest source. Snape didn't go into detail about the small, rare, ingredient. But Ron, after realizing what he had done, dropped the vile it was in and it had poured all over documents that Professor Snape had set on his table while he went to go yell at Neville some more, for almost ruining his borrowed cauldron. Afterwards, Ron grabbed another vile, of what he thought was more Dyoxide but it turned out to be acid absorbed from a jellyfish. It burned a hole through the desk and from the shock Ron knocked down his cauldron all over the floor. It was a mess….

Hermione sighed and walked over to Ron. "What on earth, where you thinking?" she nearly, yelled. "You should have asked me for help!"

"You said you didn't want me speaking to you, so I didn't bother," replied Ron, looking away. He bent down and started to clean up the mess he made.

Hermione stared at him blankly. "Uh.... I...."

"You better go before he gives you a detention too," he said, continuing to clean the mess and not looking back at her.

Hermione stared blankly and walked out of the classroom with Harry.

"I feel so bad..." said Hermione, looking over at Harry.

"What? That you snapped at him? No big deal."

"No, honestly... I..." Hermione paused.

Hermione stared at the floor and looked back in the classroom and watched Ron clean up the mess. She just wanted to walk back and give him a hug. She just wanted to take back everything she said to him. He must have felt terrible.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You know, I can read you two so well..." he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Hermione looked over at him. "Oh... Harry, but I don't want to get into a relationship with him... You might feel left out!"

"Don't worry about me. Do something for yourself. You two deserve it," assured Harry.

"Oh... You mean it?"

"I do."

"Thanks so much, Harry!" she said, hugging him tightly. "But I can't just randomly come up and tell him how I feel.."

"Sure you can..."

"I'll wait till we settle out our dispute," she said, calmly.

"Suit yourself," said Harry. "I'm gonna go in and keep him company, 'til Snape snaps at me."

"All right, see you."

Hermione walked up to the common room and sat down on the couch, she soon drifted into a light sleep, thinking about Ron...

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Sorry for short ending of chapter. Ish tired and sick. '(

Hopefully I'll get better and you'll get a longer next chapter! xD

Review!

Vikki


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